It’s a dawn of a new era. The pandemic has brought about the age of remote work, viewed as a pipe dream of the average worker just two years ago. But who could have predicted that the threat of a global pandemic actually ushered in sweeping changes to jobs as we’d known it. For the past two years, majority of workers have tasted the allure of working from home during lockdowns though that trend is fast reversing as the world transits into an endemic state of living.

While some companies have recognised the value of remote work and continued championing hybrid work or even permanent WFH arrangements, others dissented and moved swiftly to haul their workers back to the office full-time as soon as they could as they proclaimed that being back at the workplace sparks spontaneity, fosters team spirit and create synergies.

Much of this, I opine, is archaic thinking borne from the traditional association of home with leisure and the office with work. What laid unspoken are worries from the higher ups about the wasted office rental, concerns of employees slacking off and the perceived unfairness when some colleagues are unable to work remotely due to the nature of their work. They are not wrong, but they are not completely right either.

Instead, from an alternate perspective, there are cost saving opportunities to be had with a reduction in rental floorspace. Furthermore, productivity hasn’t even been in a rut without workers being physically in the office. And the inequality? That has already been around since the first industrial revolution when labourers continued to toil under the hot sun while skilled workers operated in the relative comfort of sheltered factories.

Employers and employees need not be in opposing camps. Remote work can exist in a spectrum where hybrid working arrangements can afford a win-win situation that offers the best of both worlds: workers are spared the long commutes, gain more work-life balance while companies may possibly enjoy stronger talent retention with higher staff morale. The end of the pandemic doesn’t need to spell the demise of remote work because with the right parameters, work in the 21st century can be redefined.